Former General Electric Co. chief executive Jack Welch backed away from comments he made criticizing his successor for missing earnings targets.
“Nothing, nothing, nothing is as disgusting to me as some old CEO chirping away about how things aren’t as good under the new guy as they were under him,” Welch said on CNBC. “That’s the last thing that I would be involved in.”
Last week, Welch, who retired in 2001, said he would be “shocked beyond belief” if chief executive Jeff Immelt again missed an earnings target. He said he’d “get out a gun and shoot” Immelt if GE missed an earnings target.
Welch, 72, also said Immelt had “credibility issues,” but vigorously defended GE’s business model.
However, a day later, he renounced his earlier comments.
“I want to get back and just make the one point I tried to make yesterday,” Welch said. “GE’s a great company with a great model with a hell of a CEO who’s reshuffled the business portfolio to make it stronger for the next decade and all this nonsense that’s been buzzing around for the last week is just silly talk and I am 100 percent supportive of everything going on there.”
